This disclosure relates to intelligent control of conversations using wearable audio systems.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,571,917, incorporated here by reference, describes a device to be worn around a user's neck, as shown in FIG. 1, and which output sounds in such a way that it is more audible or intelligible to the wearer than to others in the vicinity. A commercial implementation of such a device is the SoundWear Companion wearable speaker from Bose Corporation. FIG. 2 shows a set of headphones that include an electronics module worn around the user's neck. Controls such as noise cancellation and other signal processing are performed in the neckband, and audio outputs are sent to the earbuds over wires. FIG. 3 shows a set of in-ear headphones that are connected to each other by a cord, but are otherwise wireless. In some examples of such a configuration, one earbud houses the battery, while the other houses electronics for signal processing and wireless communication, with audio signals for the first earbud sent over the cord. FIG. 4 shows a set of fully wireless headphones. In this implementation, each earbud houses a battery and the necessary electronics, though the electronics may not be identical between the two earbuds.